Our inexperience once again comes back to cause stress and head aches! I called to set up our building inspection and found out we missed one! A BIG one!
After about 2 hours of freaking out and sending a ton of photos and videos to the building department we got word that they were going to accept our digital version of the inspection. They weren't happy about it but it was an honest mistake born from the way the building permit is worded. Our building permit specifically lists what inspections are required in the form of a checklist. Other than the partial sentences below there is no other wording on the permit in regards to the steps.
- Footings and Piers prior to pouring - CHECK
- Foundation prior to back fill- ummm check???
- etc etc (we will get to the rest later)
Apparently we were supposed to have them come look at the stem wall rebar before we poured it.
OOPS! I will admit there was a tiny voice in my head that wondered why they wanted to look at the rebar in the footer but not the walls. Turns out I should have listened to that little voice.
They don't have a permit document that reflects our unusual build and no one mentioned it at the footing inspection so we just motored along blissfully unaware that we were shooting ourselves in the foot. They are letting it slide because we have tons of proof that we did put the rebar in the wall. We are also not contractors so the probability that we would remove it to use on another job is basically 0%.
Note to self.... going forward...at each inspection ask what the next inspection should be!
We did have the foundation inspection and got the go ahead to start back filling the outside of the foundation.
The next inspection was the very rough plumbing and electrical. We decided that we would put in the long conduit runs before we filled the inside of the foundation so there will be much less digging later on. We will still have to do another rough plumbing and electrical inspection but it will be after the dome shell is up and when we are working on all the under slab utilities. The rough plumbing and electrical inspection we just completed had to have a plumbing pressure test. We had to get special caps for the ends of the runs and run a pipe 10 feet into the air on one of the up hill runs. The whole thing was filled with water for 24 hrs to check for leaks.
This part delayed us a bit since we need a 24 hour period where it would be above freezing. We finally got our day and luckily it all went fine and now we are allowed to back fill the inside.
Here is where the accident comes into play. The trench on the up hill side of the foundation was where we miscalculated digging the original trench. We didn't dig enough so we had to redo that section and the trench ended up being super wide in that area. Super wide = lots of fill had to be added in that area. New fill often means soft spots. Soft spots + 8,000 lb loaded bobcat + hill = BAD!
Oh and I found the soft spot....
I assure you this was not the fun kind of roller coaster ride!
Click here to watch the security camera footage and our rescue.
Special note to Bobcat.... the safety restraint system in the skid steer is made for big burly guys. It didn't do much for me!
On the upside...I was able to squeeze out the door with it partially upside down. Other than a few bruises and a few bent rebar everything was ok. Thankfully we have friends with very large machines right next door who think a Sunday afternoon rescue is the bomb! Of course many photos had to be taken first!
They don't have a permit document that reflects our unusual build and no one mentioned it at the footing inspection so we just motored along blissfully unaware that we were shooting ourselves in the foot. They are letting it slide because we have tons of proof that we did put the rebar in the wall. We are also not contractors so the probability that we would remove it to use on another job is basically 0%. Note to self.... going forward...at each inspection ask what the next inspection should be!
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